The 12th Abuja International Housing Show is being designed to feature innovations that will make it a remarkable improvement of past housing shows in Nigeria, says Barrister Festus Adebayo, Chief Executive Officer of the corporate convener of the annual housing show – Fesadeb Communications Limited.

The Chairman, who spoke to our correspondent recently in Abuja, said: ‘The twelfth Abuja Housing Show will allow for full participation of domestic and international public institutions as well as the organized private sector, adding that all the professional businesses that constitute the building construction industry are encouraged to key into the trade and development opportunities that will be afforded by the 12th Abuja International Housing Show.

While saying that it is important for local and international policy makers in the housing industry to interphase with the organised private sector, he assured that the 12th Exhibition will bring together professional businesses in the industry as a way of affording them the opportunity to showcase the peculiarity of their respective expertise.

While saying that housing and real estate development is capital intensive, he encouraged banks and lending houses to take advantage of the Show by showcasing their housing loan plans to investors and individuals who will come to shop for housing loans, adding that housing is the second most important need of man, after food.

All professionals in the built environment should participate, he said adding that they include Quantity Surveyors, Estate Surveyors and valuers, Town Planners, Architectural organizations and institutions, professional Builders, building equipment manufacturers, civil engineering construction firms and all other professional groups in the built industry.

“Manufacturers and various service providers in the built environment will be afforded opportunity to discuss their products and services with clients from all over the world toward forging new development partnerships for growth of the industry, a development he said will engender mutual cooperation and economic development.

Adebayo who is a multiple award-winning media industry leader with focus on the housing sector said: “Nigeria stands a good chance to realise its aspiration of large scale jobs creation through the building construction sector saying that “hope is not lost, I see a bright light at the end of the tunnel.”

According to him, Abuja International Housing Show is not for only policy makers and businesses; it is also for researchers who are working to trigger innovations in the sector. “Therefore we look forward to the participation of academics from relevant departments in the universities, polytechnics, building research centers, housing finance institutions in Nigeria and diaspora and colleges of education among others,” he said.

We look forward to the participation of all institutions that teach courses related to housing and the building industry, he said adding that the participation of researchers and operators will lead to the much-needed synergy required for excellence in the sector.

“We want to ensure that knowledge provided via research in universities is adopted and used by operators across the various professionals in the built environment,” he said, adding that there must be constant exchange of information between the academics, construction finance experts and the operators in order to ensure continuous improvement of products and services in the housing/building construction industry.

He said one of the positive results of the Abuja Housing Show and the Nigeria Housing Awards is the fact that most state governments are actively competing for the title of the country’s affordable housing top innovator.

“Ogun State is using pragmatic public-private partnerships involving multi-tier levels of government to redevelop city land and create space for affordable housing in Abeokuta and Sagamu while Lagos State is succeeding at providing subsidies and is now re-calibrating its policies to promote rent-to-own affordable housing.”

He went further to note that the Federal Capital Territory is striving to increase the supply of low-cost housing for the poor by leveraging on private sector support to keep prices reasonable.

He commended the Obaseki administration of Edo state for the pragmatic effort it has made to design and implement a modern housing policy from the scratch.

While he said that the organisers of the show have factored-in the discussed above, he however observed that there are still some challenges militating against the provision of affordable housing to Nigeria’s growing urban population. “The organizers of Abuja Housing Show believe that there are areas that could unleash additional innovation across the country and deliver more results to the urban poor.”

The CEO hinted that criteria the organisers have made more stringent, the criteria for qualification of various categories of awards, adding that some states have shown remarkable signs of promise for growth and development of the housing sectors.

Discussing the benchmarks for selection of winner-states or organisations, Adebayo said: “Some of the criteria considered in determining award winners include the extent to which respective state governments are able to engage the organised private sector in housing development.

“Affordability is a key criterion for selection of the winner,” he said and emphasised the importance of putting in place policies that make housing affordable to low income earners.

The CEO tasked state governments to formulate policies that will lead to a private-sector driven development of the building construction industry in Nigeria, adding that the sector wields huge potentials for job creation.

He further noted that the organisers will be very disposed to state governments that are able to encourage the private sector to “embrace more efficient, resilient and environmentally friendly technologies while also exposing them to new trends in housing finance.”

While he noted that real estate development is capital intensive, Adebayo tasked state governors to constitute teams of housing finance professionals who will evolve new trends in housing finance in order to fund viable re-development projects in Nigerian cities.